Tuesday

Bitcoin, the decentralized cryptocurrency that is "disrupting" the financial sector these days, actually has an impact on our planet, a physical impact to be precise. No, we are not talking about its potential applications in our daily lives. We are referring to Bitcoin's electricity consumption, which is so huge it can compared to that of countries.

Wednesday

What is the least thing one might expect from an AI program? As far as creativity goes, drawing a connection between politics and pickup cars is nothing short of far-fetchedness, or so it seems. But, the truth is, that is exactly what a recent study published in PNAS touched on. No matter how weird you think this conclusion is, as you read this article, you will soon find out that the principle is actually quite simple, yet powerful enough to predict voting results!

Thursday

A vegetative state is a clinical condition that usually refers to patients who have a severe dysfunction of their cerebral hemispheres, resulting in a loss of conscious responses, hence the term vegetative. Well, it turns out we may soon need to update our lexicon as this expression is kind of an insult to plants. Yes, that is because a new scientific study has revealed that plants actually exhibit decision-making behaviors when they are faced with competition.

Wednesday

As Bitcoin's price keeps reaching new ATHs (i.e., All-Time-High) frequently, more and more people are venturing into the cryptoverse. The number of newcomers is so high it caused a very known exchange to halt subscriptions for new clients (i.e., Bittrex). However, what most people who are not very familiar with cryptocurrencies don't know, is that new cryptocoins are popping up every now and then. One of these coins is Einsteinium. No, we are not talking about the element Einsteinium, whose atomic number is 99.

Monday

With the cyptocurrency market literally exploding every day, the world is steadily moving towards decentralization in almost every aspect of our lives. This decentralization trend is so strong it is affecting domains that were previously exclusively reserved for experts and official institutions. For example, in recent years, we have seen a surge in citizen science projets that aim to empower ordinary citizens by given them an opportunity to contribute to scientific advancements. Citizen science projects range from identifying exoplanets (e.g., Planet Hunters), to bug hunting. Yes, if you have seen an invasive bug and want to help scientists build a system that predicts pests' movements, you can do that at the Big Bug Hunt Project's page. Going back to the actual topic of this article, MIT's physicists have created a muon particle detector that anyone can build using affordable common electronic parts.

Thursday

We all had those moments when an irresistible itch just happens to ignite at the exact time the series' episode we are watching reaches its climax. The vicious itch leaves us with two choices: Either we try to relieve it by scratching and risk missing our favorite TV show's best moments, or we simply resist the urge and call it a day. Oftentimes, this dilemma feels like having to choose between being killed by a firing squad or being burned at stake.

But what does science have to tell us about this unpleasant sensation?

Monday

With the recent release of Microsoft's famous console Xbox One X, it is safe to assume that gamers' and technology enthusiasts' reactions will mostly be on the optimistic end of the scale. Currently priced at $499.99, the console surely brings a lot to the gaming table. However, what most people miss or simply don't notice, is the form in which the price is laid out. By the form, we mean the two 'nines' (e.g., $19.99) at the end of the price.

This pricing formula can be found almost in every shopping center, be it physical or electronic. A fidget spinner for $4.99, a twirling spaghetti fork for £5.99, all these are examples that illustrate the omnipresence of this pricing phenomenon. Despite its widespread use, this pricing method (a.k.a psychological or charm pricing) goes unperceived by most people, as many of them see it merely as a skin-deep practice.

Wednesday

Fungi, those exotic "creatures" with which we have a love and hate relationship, may seem primitive to most people, but the truth is that they have one of the most uncanny mating systems out there. In order to digest this post as smoothly as possible, a disclaimer is a must. You need to give all your prior knowledge pertaining to gender a rest, because what you are about to witness defy all kinds of conventional conceptions about mating. With that warning out of way, we can now finally talk about sex among fungi.

Saturday

When we try to picture what an alien living on Kepler-452b might look like, the first image that comes to our mind is that of a greenish creature with shiny big eyes and a giant brain. However, this impression is about to change as a new scientific study from the University of Oxford has shown that aliens might in fact be more similar to us than we think.

Tuesday

While the Kepler space telescope's data collecting ability was severely handicapped by the failure of two of its four reaction wheels on July 14 2012 and May 11 2013 respectively, it has certainly revolutionized the search for exoplanets with its discovery of more than 2300 confirmed exoplanets and another 4,496 unconfirmed alien worlds.

A new analysis of Kepler's data collected in its first few operational years preceding the wheel accident, has revealed the existence of 20 potential exoplanets that may actually be able to harbor alien life.

Monday

Fish getting emotional and fruit flies having primitive internal emotions? If this isn't enough to give you a braingasm, then how about bacteria that possess a sense of touch? Yes, you are not reading a science fiction book, because a research team led by Prof. Urs Jenal at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, has discovered that bacteria are actually capable of sensing their environment!

Sunday

"The things we do for science" might be the standard Jaime Lannister-like response one would get upon asking the team members behind this research about their unconventional approach to studying dolphin sex.
Researchers at Dalhousie, Massachusetts and Tufts Universities have used an artificially erected dead dolphin penis (i.e., an artificial dead boner so to speak) to understand how these cetaceans mate in the wild.

Saturday

We all were exposed to a situation where our excuses for not showing up for a party or a meeting seemed fishy to the others. Although the term "fishy" bears a negative meaning in most cases since it likely originated from the fact that fish are slippery and smell bad after a while, things might change after a recent scientific study showed that fish get in fact emotional, just like humans do. Well, sort of!

Thursday

Molecular robots that build and assemble molecules? Check. Micro-robots that are capable of flying, swimming, diving and breaking out of water? Check. As science and technology continue to delve into the "Nanoland" realm, it stands to reason that the micro-machine tendency will only keep solidifying as more and more scientific researches try to explore the micro-world.
In what appears to be a natural consequence of this trend, a team of scientists from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically-Inspired Engineering at Harvard, managed to create a RoboBee that is capable of flying, swimming, and flying again after diving out of water.

Tuesday

When it comes to the art of attracting females, insects often go to extreme lengths to secure a mate. As we have seen in the previous post, water boatman males make the loudest noise in the animal kingdom relative to their body size. Another example of sophisticated courtship endeavor seen in insects is that of a moth commonly found in south-east Asia as well as in northern Australia.

Males of the Creatonotos Gangis moth species have four tentacle-like body parts whose role is to attract females by emitting pheromones.

Wednesday

In the last post, we have covered a story about scientists using dead dolphins' penises to simulate their penetration behavior, and with this post's title, it seems that we are on a scientific penile spree.

This time, though, the subject is an insect called water boatman. It is a 2-mm (0.07-inch) long arthropod that makes the loudest noise relative to its body size!

Monday

Thinking like an insect might sound like an insult to a creature that possesses one of the most sophisticated eyes in the animal kingdom: That is what most people would think after reading this post's title. However, being able to learn and remember things like insects do is actually a good thing for the mantis shrimp.

A new scientific study, which was published in eLife on September 26 2017, uncovered that the brains of mantis shrimps contain learning and memory centers that so far have been observed only in insects.

Sunday

Trolling, the disruptive and inflammatory behavior we witness more or less in online forums and the comment sections of websites, is an antisocial act which consists in posting derogatory and deceptive comments or replies in online communities, with the apparent objective of turning an otherwise normal discussion into destructive and unhealthy quarrels, which are driven by the users' emotional reactions to the initial trolling attempt.

While previous studies have shown that Internet trolls often exhibit traits commonly associated with psychopaths and narcissists, a recent study from Stanford University and Cornell University suggests that, under the right circumstances, even ordinary people can become trolls.

Thursday

One of the most fascinating attributes of science is that it keeps challenging our understandings of the universe as new ideas and concepts are constantly being introduced either to refine already existing theories or to dismiss past knowledge and build new notions from scratch. While this variable nature of science is often what makes it what it is, it can also render it a killjoy to some people, especially when it comes to debunking imaginative alien theories.

This is exactly what NASA did to the alien megastructure theory, which explains the atypical dimming of Tabby's star as a consequence of a giant technological creation built by an advanced civilization to harvest the star's energy.

Tuesday

Next time you are checking on your zombie apocalypse survival kit to make sure you are prepared for what is to come, sneaking in a bottle of your tears might be as crucial as your typical knife set. Well, sort of!

Irish scientists have figured out a method to generate electricity using a protein that can found in tears and even egg whites.